The Many 'Me's of Mike
by Indio Belga
Summary: REIMAGINATION OF THE ALL-STARS FINALE. An attempt to breathe life into what is generally considered (by me as well) a cop-out ending. This reimagination is a bit more 'cinematographic' but it pushes forward a plot that should be more enjoyable and satisfying while keeping some of the same basic ideas. Please drop a review. ONE-SHOT!


**DISCLAIMER:** On the topic of Mike's MPD problem, this is a slight re-take on it. It's going to be a bit 'heavier' than usually Total Drama, but it will jump right at it from the middle of All-Stars, Episode 12, and try to give more depth to a few things I found to be a cop-out in the official ending. It's pretty cheesy, but I really think it worked out for the most part, so please read it.

 **TIMELINE:** This takes place from All-Stars' Final Four onwards. Most of the same events (Mike/Zoey battling it out, Mike's wallet, the tower, the button) still happen, but are changed to make for a better experience.

Enjoy.

* * *

 **The Many Mes of Mike**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Repressed Memories**

It was a happy day in All-Stars land - except for Mike. Mike was stuck in his own brain. Mal had managed to stick him there in his evil plot. But not for long - Mike already gathered his other personalities, Chester, Vito, Manitoba and Svetlana, and they were ready to go to Mal's Tower and take the bastard down.

Until a fateful question arrived.

"Hey, why does Mike get back in control, ay?" Vito piped up

"Ah yeah! Are we goin' to be relegated to Second Bananas again?!" Chester said, in his cranky voice. "Why does Mike deserve to be in the lead?"

"I'm the original! I was in here and I deserve to be the one in charge!" Mike said, picking up his wallet and showing the ID to the other personalities. They all gasped when they realized what was going on.

On the wallet there was a single picture of Mal.

At this moment, Mike realized the situation. His previously untapped memories came to the surface - or, worse, they didn't. He realized he had no recollection of his child years. From a random moment in time, he began to have memories. His 13th birthday was the first - but he had no recollection of his 12th.

He also realized he never saw a photo album of his young teen years either. His parents said that they got lost when they moved, along with all his toys, drawings that people would keep, and other personal possessions.

It doesn't matter if anyone said Mal was in control and could be playing tricks - it doesn't matter if Mike tried to brush it off as if that was the truth: It was at that moment that Mike knew he was the very thing he had bashed - he was the very thing that he claimed to be a problem. He was nothing more than a personality.

* * *

 **Chapter 2 - The Button**

Cue the button. The whole trip to the tower, Mike had stayed silent, pondering what it meant. He repressed deep inside his mind the idea that he wasn't the original, and it was driving him crazy.

"If you press this button, all of us will disappear and you'll stay here, Mike!" Svetlana said, articulating every word. She didn't know the truth - Mike hid it from them, so she believed Mike was the original personality.

"Yeah, but then you're gonna defeat Mal, and ain't that a kicker" Manitoba said.

"At the expense of us going poof, bro. That don't fly with the Vito" Vito replied, acting as a shield for the button "No way I'm letting anybody press this"

"Pfft" Manitoba complained "I ain't up to ceasing to exist either"

The personalities all looked at Mike, who was even more reluctant than them. He tried to cover things up "Uh, look! I... I don't want to see you disappear because of me!" That was only half the truth. He had no problem in taking control when they got annoying, but he didn't know if he'd disappear too if they pressed the button.

In his own eyes, Mike wanted to become the only one - live a normal life - with Zoey. But not even knowing what had happened in his early years? What if the other personalities had been around for longer and Mike had just repressed that too? Was he even, in a way, the most deserving?

Things couldn't stop at the button - and Manitoba, Vito, Chester, Svetlana, none of them wanted to die either. All they knew was Mal was getting stronger by the minute, and possibly already winning the million by that point.

"Ah, screw it! Not existing is better than this!" Chester said, and just slammed his palm on the button.

Mike was the first to disappear.

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - One Level Down**

The feeling of the afterlife, of not existing, was surprisingly pleasant, Mike found. The ground was bouncy and cushioned his fall pretty well. Everything was soft and silky smooth, and the atmosphere itself had a mellow feeling to it.

It was great - except for the lingering question of where Mike really was.

"...am I... not dead?" Mike asked himself. He looked around the room he was in and saw that it was surprisingly similar to his brain, except darker and more somber, even if more comfortable.

"Yes, took you long enough to figure that out, dimwit" Chester said, waving a cane he got around. "Proud of yourself on that one?"

"Shut up, Chester, it's your fault we're here in the first place, dude" Vito complained.

"Yes! That is not a decision you take based on being annoyed by chatter!" Svetlana piped up. "But... Mike, why are you here with us? Weren't you the true personality?"

"Not apparently" Vito intervened "Mal's out there creating havoc all by himself right now"

"We're being repressed, blokes." Manitoba said, tipping his hat "And we won't be getting out for a while. If we thought we were in a prison this is goddamn Alcatraz".

Mike just looked around, perplexed. For one second, he was relieved that, despite not winning, at least the fight was over, but now he had to go through those internal conflicts again. Things he never thought about that had come flowing in for the first time in his whole life.

He needed some time off, for himself. That's what he thought.

* * *

 **Chapter 4 - Some 'Me' Time**

Mike had really only seen Mal face to face once. Some times he caught his glimpse, but never to the point of seeing how much darkness he had inside it. But now that he was seeing the darkest place of his own mind, he realized it.

He was a repressed memory now. But he was still there. There was still a somewhat sliver of hope. He sits on a particular mushy pile of brain to think.

"Ouch!" At the same time, he jumps up, feeling something hit his butt. "What the-?" He looks at the pile and pulls a tape out of it. He realizes then, that the whole floor is littered with tapes. Hundreds, if not thousands of tapes.

"Really, tapes? Get with the times, Mal!" He tries to joke to break the ice. The tape he has in his hands read "Chester #3014". He puts the tape in one of the many tape slots on the brainy walls. It begins to play.

The tape is a compilation of Chester moments. Moments where Chester is genuinely laughing, genuinely having fun. Genuinely. Just like Mike had. The moments Chester was 'the active one', Mike was always inside the brain, moping, just waiting for his time to go back. He never knew that Chester actively enjoyed his time out.

He saw a tape labeled Svetlana. Another one labeled Vito. Another one labeled Manitoba. They were all in the same boat. They were all people who had their fun when they were outside, they all had feelings, they all had good times. Inside, they all bid their time, their chance to return.

Mike looked at a tape with his name. He realized he was in the same boat as the other personalities. They were all very much real, and they were all being repressed by Mal, left to rot in this part of the brain, along with those memories. Mal didn't even want to feel them. If Mike did that, he'd be the same as Mal, if not worse, for not even being the original.

All the personalities were part of Mike's 'me' time. They were all him, and they all cherished every single moment they were at the drivers' seat, even if sometimes it didn't show, and even if they were grumpy at times.

He sucked it up. One of the tapes was labeled 'Mal'. It was a record of the time Mal was the one inside this part of the brain, the part where repressed ideas and memories went to rot.

Mike pressed play.

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - Freedom**

"Hello, Mike. I hope you're enjoying your time there. Did you like my tower? Did you like my trap? Or did you think a button was enough to take me down?" It was Mal. More precisely, a pre-recorded message. Mike furrowed his brows.

"As much as I could have always done that, that wouldn't be any fun. I had to give you some hope before I could snatch it away from your noodle arms"

"But don't worry, as you can see, you're not dead. Just repressed. Sadly they didn't invented a cure for you freaks yet" Mike winced at that comment. Knowing he was one of the personalities hurt even more.

"But you'll find that there's no feasible way out. Believe me, I tried, when you kept me stuck here for a hellish 5 years." He pauses "That is child's play, however, compared to the eternity you'll be spending there. Tah-dah, have a terrible time"

The tape begins showing a timelapse of Mal's five years inside the very same repressed memories chamber Mike was standing one. But even though Mike was feeling numb, he saw one thing in a particular shot.

"Manitoba, Vito, Chester, Svetlana! You are NOT going to believe me, but there IS a way out of here!"

"You're right, I ain't believing you" Manitoba said.

"We HAVE to work together, though!" Mike piped up

"But weren't you tryin' to get us all to vanish right now, man? Whos to say that won't happen again?" Vito said

"You have to trust me on this one. If this works, NO ONE is going to feel left out" Mike said. They all nod, with some restraint.

"So what do you need us to do?" Svetlana chimes in.

"Svetlana, you're key to this. Do you think you can carry all of us" He begins explaining. She nods and says that she can, with ease. Mike then points up "Alright, you see the ceiling of this?"

Chester frowns "There is no ceiling, you numb skull"

"Exactly - this is why Mal couldn't get out without outside help...THIS is Mal's true tower."

They all look up. The wall extends to seemingly forever, but it was true, there was no discernable ceiling. Mike realized that when he saw the videos of Mal in this chamber, and saw how they were lit, compared to the scenes in the outside.

All they had to do is work together, and, once again: climb.

* * *

 **Chapter 6 - Epilogue**

Svetlana sweated tons as she climbed the side of the walls, carrying the other 4. Manitoba also helped from time to time, but he couldn't match her pace, and Chester, Mike and Vito were all working together in order to give balance and make up for Svetlana whenever she felt tired.

It took a long time. Their muscles were sore 10 minutes in. But they didn't stop. They had to.

Minutes passed. Hours passed. Yet they all worked together in order to climb. They couldn't afford not to, and, at least for Mike, he had learned the motivation of every single one of them, and their will to keep on living, despite Chester's bursts of complaints.

But at last, the top. Mal's overconfidence in his true prison didn't even made him keep tabs on it, and as soon as Mike, Manitoba, Svetlana, Chester and Vito got out of the Repressed Memories Prison, they were on the home stretch.

Together, they took control of their collective mind. Mal was banished to the Repressed Memories Chamber, and, with luck and cooperation, he'd never have a chance to get out. He wasn't a incredible threat, he just took advantage of the rift between Mike and the other personalities. With their collective willpower, it was easy. Still, he could always come back.

"...I'll be biding my time, and when you least expect, I'm coming for your head, you fools! I will NOT be stuck in that mess of a place for five years again!" He cried out as Vito threw him down the 'garbage chute', as he had dubbed it.

Mike nodded to Manitoba, who encouraged him "Go get the girl" For a moment, Mike stepped into the driver's seat and met Zoey, who he was apparently fighting with as Mal.

"Hey, where's the necklace I gave you?" He joked. Zoey instantly knew he was back and they kissed. It was time to see, for real, who would win the final challenge and the million.

As for the Svetlana, Chester, Vito and Manitoba? Mike was going to try to strike a deal so they would also get to live their own, happy lives. But that was another monolith of a problem, and a story for another time.

* * *

 _So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this reimagination. Please drop a review, if you'd like, because that always helps. It's a bit short and a bit too 'cinema-ish', but I think it's one of the many ways the story could have ended up better._


End file.
